Mir News

Here's the latest wire copy on MIR status:
Roy Neal, K6DUE
Kazakhs clear way for launch to Russia's Mir
By Mike Collett-White
BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan, July 14 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan eased a ban on space
launches from its Baikonur cosmodrome on Wednesday, clearing the way for
Russia to send a cargo craft with vital supplies to the manned Mir space
station.
The ban remained in force only for rocket boosters of the type which crashed
after takeoff on July 5 and prompted the former Soviet republic to
temporarily suspend all launches.
Wednesday's decision eased concerns in Russia, which uses Baikonur for its
main launches, that Mir could eventually crash uncontrollably to earth if the
Progress cargo craft did not deliver a navigation system to the ageing
station.
Russian officials, who negotiated an end to the ban at talks in Kazakhstan,
said the Progress must be launched by Sunday so that the Russian-French crew
can install it before Mir is left unmanned next month. The launch had been
due on Wednesday.
``If it is (launched) after July 18, it means we would not have enough time
to install the system and could lose control of the station,'' Vyacheslav
Mikhailichenko, spokesman for the Russian Space Agency, told Reuters in
Baikonur.
``After a while it could simply fall out of orbit,'' he said.
Kazakhstan suspended all launches from Baikonur last week after a Russian
Proton rocket plunged to earth shortly after takeoff, scattering debris over
the remote Kar-Karalinsk region in the centre of the vast Central Asian state
of 15 million.
A Ukrainian-Russian Zenit rocket carrying a survey satellite has been
grounded since Thursday, but officials in Astana did not say whether its
launch would be allowed.
The Progress carrying the navigation system to Mir is to be launched on a
Soyuz rocket and is a precaution against the more than 13-year-old Mir
crashing to earth while Moscow tries to find the money needed to send up
another crew.
Russians Viktor Afanasyev and Sergei Avdeyev and Frenchman Jean-Pierre
Haignere are due to leave Mir for earth on August 23, and need about a month
to install the system.
Kazakhstan kept its suspension of Proton launches in place because of fears
that the highly toxic ``giptil'' fuel used to power such rockets could cause
serious environmental damage if there is another accident.
``The Kazakh side has raised the point that the rocket booster Proton is
environmentally unfavourable. The question was raised, still stands, and no
one plans to withdraw it,'' said Askar Abduzhapparov, deputy director of the
Kazakh space agency.
Initial tests at the scene of the crash by Russian specialists have not
revealed any traces of giptil.
Kazakhstan which has built strong ties with Moscow since independence in
1991, wants compensation from Russia, the full payment of this year's
Baikonur rent of $115 million and the opportunity to renegotiate parts of the
bilateral agreement.
According to an agreement reached at talks on Wednesday, Russia will pay full
compensation for the damage caused by the Proton's crash and has promised to
start paying rental payments in August. The sum of the compensation was not
revealed.
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